Every Monday morning, we take a stroll through Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback column in search of nuggets that fit within our never-ending non-stop shop of NFL news and whatnot. Today, we found a potent piece of whatnot buried in the column.
Off for the last month or so, King dropped the following bombshell in the 10 things he thinks: “I think the Washington franchise will have a new team name by 2016.”
With a Ruthian finger to the outfield bleachers, the reporter who no longer has a Ruthian physique became the first national media type to put a date certain on change. In fact, other than Senator Harry Reid (who has predicted a change within three years), we can’t think of any other prominent person who has provided a timetable for changing the name.
While King’s “I think” feature often has a wistful, speculative quality, he doesn’t throw dirt. He typically has heard something specific that makes him think what he thinks.
“I know things,” he’ll often say to me when we get together before a Sunday slate of games, with a twinkle in his eye that may or may not be attributable in whole or in part to caffeine.
Chances are that, in saying that the name will change by 2016, King has indeed been told something by someone in position to know the truth that the current plan is for the name to change by 2016.
It’s a tight timetable, and it suggests that the NFL and/or the team have moved much closer to deciding that it no longer makes sense to have a lingering (and intensifying) debate regarding whether the name of one of the NFL’s 32 franchises is racially offensive.